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A Walk Around the Micro Farm & An Uninvited Guest

Today was a wash, here at the Micro Farm we received several hours of rain. The ground is very thirsty after a hot and dry summer. This evening I went out to take pictures, and found a un-invited guest.

It appears I am not growing a lot of what this rabbit likes to eat.

I experimented with using milk jugs and a two and a half-gallon water jug as portable slow-drip watering jugs. It was mostly successful. The plants were watered well and in a focused manner. The first attempts I made the holes to big. My suggestion is to start small and then slowly get bigger if needed.

The larger water jug I tried. It was easier to water several plants with this jug.

I ended up leaving the caps on, which allowed me to control the flow. One of the most significant issues I have is when they are empty they can blow around.

The milk jug was able to water two plants close together. The opening and closing cap controlled the flow.

If you have a small area to water, and do not want to use a hose, these may be a good choice for you.

On my walk I noticed the onions are starting to fall over. When I started planting onions I read they would “fall over” when they were done

These onions are just about ready to be harvested. They have fallen over. After the soil dries out a bit I will pull them up.

The peppers are really doing well. The Olympus variety is doing very well.

These are two of the Olympus peppers. All the plants in this row have peppers growing on them.

I removed the insect barrier from the cucumbers this week. With a few days of full sun they have grown at a surprising rate. We will have lots of cucumbers this year.

The cucumbers without their insect barrier.I filled the potato buckets to the brim with potting soil this week. They appear to be growing wellThe tomatillos are doing well. I think four plants is a good number for us. Each husk has a tomatillo inside it.

There were two plants I wanted to add to my new native flower garden. I wanted a creeping or moss phlox. This phlox grows low to the ground and will spread nicely. I also wanted to add a butterfly milkweed to help attract butterflies. This week I found both plants locally, and on sale.

Top left- Moss Phlox; Top right – The native flower garden in late May; Bottom left – the native flower garden today; Bottom right – Butterfly milkweed

The next week looks to be another hot week, with a chance some storms roll through. There will be lots to do to stay up with the weeds and maintenance of the Micro Farm.

Enjoy this season, learn from last season, and look forward to next season.

Glad you got some rain. It rained both Sat & Sun here, and I was happy for the free water and for the fact that I didn’t have to water my lawn. I like your water jug dripping idea! That’s very creative. Your garden looks great!